Civil society organizations and trade unions: cooperation, conflict, indifference

Sociologists of labour have explored the relationship of trade unions to other social movements and the conditions that allow ‘coalitions across the class divide’ to be formed. This article examines this question by presenting evidence on the interaction between trade unions and other civil society organizations in the UK; that is, advocacy, identity and single-issue, campaigning organizations. It finds that there is no single, dominant relationship but rather a complex pattern of cooperation, conflict and indifference.